Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova is the daughter of Nicholas II, who, along with the rest of the family members, was shot in July 1918 in the basement of a house in Yekaterinburg. In the early 20s of the 20th century, numerous impostors began to appear in Europe and the United States, declaring themselves to be the surviving Grand Duchess. The most famous of them, Anna Anderson, was even recognized as the youngest daughter by some surviving members of the imperial house. Litigation lasted for several decades, but did not resolve the issue of its origin.
However, the discovery in the 90s of the remains of an executed woman royal family put an end to these proceedings. There was no escape, and Anastasia Romanova was still killed that night in 1918. This article will be devoted to the short, tragic and suddenly cut short life of the Grand Duchess.
Birth of a princess
Public attention was riveted to the next, already fourth, pregnancy of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. The fact is that according to the law, only a man could inherit the throne, and the wife of Nicholas II gave birth to three daughters in a row. Therefore, both the king and the queen counted on the appearance of their long-awaited son. Contemporaries recall that Alexandra Fedorovna at this time was increasingly immersed in mysticism, inviting people to the court who could help her give birth to an heir. However, on June 5, 1901, Anastasia Romanova was born. The daughter was born strong and healthy. She received her name in honor of the Montenegrin princess, who was a close friend of the queen. Other contemporaries claimed that the girl was named Anastasia in honor of the pardon of students who participated in the unrest.
And although the relatives were disappointed by the birth of another daughter, Nikolai himself was glad that she was born strong and healthy.
Childhood years
Parents did not spoil their daughters with luxury, with early childhood instilling in them modesty and piety. Anastasia Romanova was especially friendly with her older sister Maria, whose age difference was only 2 years. They shared a room and toys together, and the younger princess often wore the clothes of the elders. The room in which they lived was also not luxurious. The walls were painted gray, they were decorated with icons and family photographs. Butterflies were painted on the ceiling. The princesses slept in camp folding beds.
The daily routine in childhood was almost the same for all sisters. They got up early in the morning, took cold bath, had breakfast. They spent their evenings doing embroidery or playing charades. Often at this time the emperor read aloud to them. Judging by the memoirs of contemporaries, Princess Anastasia Romanova especially loved the Sunday children's balls at her aunt Olga Alexandrovna. The girl loved to dance with young officers.
From early childhood, Anastasia Nikolaevna was distinguished by poor health. She often suffered from pain in her feet because her big toes were too crooked. The princess also had a rather weak back, but she flatly refused a strengthening massage. In addition, doctors believed that the girl had inherited the hemophilia gene from her mother and was its carrier, since even after small cuts her bleeding did not stop for a long time.
Character of the Grand Duchess
From early childhood, Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova was significantly different in character from her older sisters. She was overly active and mobile, loved to play, and was constantly playing pranks. Because of her violent temper, her parents and sisters often called her “little egg” or “shvybzik.” The latter nickname appeared due to her short stature and tendency to be overweight.
Contemporaries recall that the girl had a cheerful character and got along with other people very easily. She had a high and deep voice, she loved to laugh loudly, and smiled often. She was her closest friend to Maria, but was close to her brother Alexei. She could often entertain him for hours when he was lying in bed after illness. Anastasia was a creative person, she was constantly inventing something. At her instigation, it became fashionable at court to braid ribbons and flowers into hair.
Anastasia Romanova, according to contemporaries, also had the talent of a comic actress, because she really loved to parody her loved ones. However, sometimes she could be too harsh, and her jokes could be offensive. Her pranks were not always harmless either. The girl was also not very neat, but she loved animals and was good at drawing and playing the guitar.
Training and education
Because of short life The biography of Anastasia Romanova was not full of bright events. Like the other daughters of Nicholas II, the princess began home schooling at the age of eight. Specially hired teachers taught her French, English and German. But she was never able to speak the last language. The princess was trained in world and Russian history, geography, religious dogmas, natural sciences. The program included grammar and arithmetic - the girl did not particularly like these subjects. She was not known for her perseverance, did not learn the material well, and wrote with errors. Her teachers remembered that the girl was cunning, sometimes she tried to bribe them with small gifts in order to get a higher grade.
Anastasia Romanova was much better at creative disciplines. She always enjoyed attending art, music and dance classes. The Grand Duchess was fond of knitting and sewing. As she grew up, she took up photography seriously. She even had her own album in which she kept her works. Contemporaries recalled that Anastasia Nikolaevna also loved to read a lot and could talk on the phone for hours.
First World War
In 1914, Princess Anastasia Romanova turned 13 years old. Together with her sisters, the girl cried for a long time when she learned about the declaration of war. A year later, according to tradition, Anastasia received patronage over the infantry regiment, which now bore her name.
After the declaration of war, the Empress organized a military hospital within the walls of the Alexander Palace. There, together with the princesses Olga and Tatiana, she regularly worked as sisters of mercy, caring for the wounded. Anastasia and Maria were still too young to follow their example. Therefore, they were appointed patronesses of the hospital. The princesses donated their own funds to buy medicine, prepared dressings, knitted and sewed things for the wounded, and wrote letters to their families and loved ones. Often the younger sisters simply entertained the soldiers. In her diaries, Anastasia Nikolaevna noted that she taught the military to read and write. Together with Maria, they often gave concerts in the hospital. The sisters carried out their duties with pleasure, diverting from them only for the sake of lessons.
Until the end of her life, Anastasia Nikolaevna fondly remembered her work at the hospital. In letters to her loved ones from exile, she often mentioned wounded soldiers, hoping that they would subsequently recover. On her table were photographs taken in the hospital.
February Revolution
In February 1917, all the princesses became seriously ill with measles. At the same time, Anastasia Romanova was the last to fall ill. The daughter of Nicholas II did not know that there were riots in Petrograd. The Empress planned to hide news about the flaring revolution from her children until the last moment. When armed soldiers surrounded the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoe Selo, the princesses and the crown prince were told that military exercises were being held nearby.
Only on March 9, 1917, the children learned about their father's abdication and house arrest. Anastasia Nikolaevna had not yet fully recovered from the illness and suffered from otitis media, so she completely lost her hearing for a while. Therefore, her sister Maria described in detail what happened on paper especially for her.
House arrest in Tsarskoe Selo
Judging by the memoirs of a contemporary, house arrest did not greatly change the measured life of members of the royal family, including Anastasia Romanova. The daughter of Nicholas II continued to devote everything free time training. Her father taught her and her younger brother geography and history, her mother taught her religious dogmas. The remaining disciplines were taken over by the retinue loyal to the king. They taught French and English, arithmetic, and music.
The Petrograd public had an extremely negative attitude towards the former monarch and his family. Newspapers and magazines harshly criticized the Romanovs' way of life and published offensive cartoons. A crowd of visitors from Petrograd often gathered at the Alexander Palace, who gathered at the gates, shouted offensive curses and booed the princesses walking in the park. In order not to provoke them, it was decided to reduce the walking time. I also had to give up many dishes on the menu. Firstly, because the government was cutting funding for the palace every month. Secondly, because of the newspapers, which regularly published detailed menus of former monarchs.
In June 1917, Anastasia and her sisters were completely shaved bald, as after a serious illness and taking a large number of drugs, their hair began to fall out significantly. In the summer, the Provisional Government did not prevent the royal family from leaving for Great Britain. However, Nicholas II's cousin, George V, fearing unrest in the country, refused to accept his relative. Therefore, in August 1917, the government decided to send the family of the former tsar into exile in Tobolsk.
Link to Tobolsk
In August 1917, the royal family, in the strictest secrecy, was sent by train, first to Tyumen. From there they were transported to Tobolsk on the steamer "Rus". They were supposed to be accommodated in the former governor's house, but it was not prepared before their arrival. Therefore, all family members lived on the ship for almost a week and only then were transported under escort to their new home.
The Grand Duchesses settled in corner bedroom on the second floor on camp beds that they brought with them from Tsarskoe Selo. It is known that Anastasia Nikolaevna decorated her part of the room with photographs and her own drawings. Life in Tobolsk was quite monotonous. Until September they were not allowed to leave the premises of the house. Therefore, the sisters, together with their younger brother, looked at passers-by with interest and studied. Several times a day they could go for short walks outside. At this time, Anastasia loved to collect firewood, and in the evenings she sewed a lot. The princess also took part in home performances.
In September they were allowed to attend church on Sundays. Locals they treated the former monarch and his family well; they were regularly brought food from the monastery fresh food. At the same time, Anastasia began to gain a lot of weight, but she hoped that over time, like her sister Maria, she would be able to return to her previous shape. In April 1918, the Bolsheviks decided to transport royal family to Yekaterinburg. The emperor and his wife and daughter Maria were the first to go there. The other sisters and their brother had to stay in the city.
The photo below shows Anastasia Romanova with her father and older sisters Olga and Tatyana in Tobolsk.
Relocation to Yekaterinburg and the last months of life
It is known that the attitude of the guards of the house in Tobolsk towards its residents was hostile. In April 1918, Princess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova and her sisters burned their diaries, fearing searches. Only at the end of May did the government decide to send the remaining Romanovs to their parents in Yekaterinburg.
Survivors recalled that life in the house of engineer Ipatiev, where the royal family was housed, was rather monotonous. Princess Anastasia, together with her sisters, was engaged in everyday activities: sewing, playing cards, walking in the garden next to the house, and in the evenings reading church literature to her mother. At the same time, girls were taught to bake bread. In June 1918, Anastasia celebrated her last birthday; she turned 17 years old. They were not allowed to celebrate it, so all family members played cards in the garden in honor of this and went to bed at the usual time.
Execution of a family in Ipatiev's house
Like other members of the Romanov family, Anastasia was shot on the night of July 17, 1918. It is believed that until recently she was unaware of the guard’s intentions. They were woken up in the middle of the night and ordered to urgently go down to the basement of the house because of the shooting that was taking place in the streets nearby. Chairs were brought into the room for the empress and the sick crown prince. Anastasia stood behind her mother. She took with her her dog Jimmy, who accompanied her during her exile.
It is believed that after the first shots, Anastasia and her sisters Tatyana and Maria were able to survive. The bullets could not hit because of the jewelry that was sewn into the corsets of the dresses. The Empress hoped that with their help they would, if possible, be able to buy their own salvation. Witnesses to the murder said that it was Princess Anastasia who resisted the longest. They could only wound her, so after that the guards had to finish off the girl with bayonets.
The bodies of the royal family members were wrapped in sheets and taken out of the city. There they were first doused with sulfuric acid and thrown into the mines. For many years the burial place remained unknown.
The appearance of the false Anastasius
Almost immediately after the death of the royal family, rumors about their salvation began to appear. Over the course of several decades of the 20th century, more than 30 women claimed to be the surviving Princess Anastasia Romanova. Most of them failed to attract attention.
The most famous impostor posing as Anastasia was the Polish woman Anna Anderson, who showed up in Berlin in 1920. Initially, due to her external resemblance, she was mistaken for the surviving Tatyana. To establish the fact of kinship with the Romanovs, she was visited by many courtiers who were well acquainted with the royal family. However, they did not recognize her as either Tatiana or Anastasia. However, the trials lasted until Anna Anderson’s death in 1984. Essential evidence was the curvature of the big toes, which both the impostor and the deceased Anastasia had. However, Anderson’s origins could not be accurately determined until the remains of the royal family were discovered.
Discovery of remains and their reburial
The story of Anastasia Romanova, unfortunately, did not receive a happy continuation. In 1991, unknown remains were discovered in Ganina Yama, which allegedly belonged to members of the royal family. Initially, not all the bodies were found - one of the princesses and the crown prince was missing. Scientists came to the conclusion that they could not find Maria and Alexei. They were discovered only in 2007 near the burial place of the remaining relatives. This discovery put an end to the story of numerous impostors.
Several independent genetic examinations determined that the remains found belonged to the emperor, his wife and children. Thus, they were able to conclude that there could be no survivors of the shooting.
In 1981, the Russian Church Abroad officially canonized Princess Anastasia along with the rest of the deceased family members. In Russia, their canonization took place only in 2000. Their remains, after all the necessary research, were reburied in the Peter and Paul Fortress. On the site of Ipatiev’s house, where the execution took place, the Temple on the Blood is now built.
This news shocked humanity. The Bolshevik regime shot and finished off with bayonet blows the Russian Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna, their four children and four servants in the basement of a small house in the Urals.
After the revolution and the abdication of the king, Russian Empire lost its former power, and, as a result, the royal family was sent into exile and then shot.
Since then, many assumptions have been made about their death. They say that the youngest of the Tsar’s daughters, Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, escaped the tragic fate of the rest of the family. She was saved by a Russian soldier, who was later shot. Thus was born the legend of Anastasia, which historians and scientists have studied for many decades.
According to the official version, after February Revolution 1917 Nicholas abdicated the throne on March 2. The struggle for power between the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks ended in victory for the latter, who seized power in the state led by Vladimir Ulyanov (Lenin).
They created the Red Army and established communist rule. The arrested royal family was sent to Yekaterinburg (Ural), but a few months later, fearing that the White Guards would try to free the tsar, the Bolshevik government in July 1918 ordered the execution of the royal family, which was carried out in the basement of the house of the merchant Ipatiev by a group of Red Guards under command of Yakov Yurovsky.
They gathered the whole family and servants in the basement, saying that they would now be photographed. But instead of the photographer, a group of soldiers entered, and Yurovsky addressed the Tsar, saying that the Russian people had sentenced him to death. Shots were immediately heard. Then the executioners examined the bodies and finished off with bayonets those who still showed signs of life.
They wanted to take the bodies to a more reliable place, but the car broke down, and it was decided to bury them in the nearby Ganina Yama. There they dug a grave, laid the dead in it and poured sulfuric acid and lime over it. But, as one of the soldiers who participated in the execution said, Anastasia and her younger brother Tsarevich Alexei were buried in another place.
Based on this episode, a legend was born that Anastasia remained alive. In the memo that Yurovsky sent to his superiors in Moscow in 1918, nothing was said about the episode with Anastasia.
The White Guard troops, who fought against the Reds to restore the monarchy, soon occupied Yekaterinburg and found no traces of the Tsar and his family, secretly buried in Ganina Yama.
Since then, many stories have appeared that continue to this day from mouth to mouth. They are told by various monarchists and “witnesses”, based on an event that shocked the world: Anastasia Romanova, the youngest of the Tsar’s four daughters, apparently remained alive and, after a number of twists and turns, appeared in public under the name Anne Anderson, demanding to be recognized as the Grand Duchess Romanova, the legitimate daughter of the Tsar.
Anne Anderson, who declared that she was the daughter of the Tsar, excited the world community, dividing it into two opposing camps. Her story sounded very convincing to the press and salon audience, as well as to ordinary people all continents.
Although it was not only Anna who demanded recognition as the daughter of Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra, she soon became the only contender, since for more than half a century she persistently asserted that she was the real Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova.
Thorough investigations were carried out regarding Anna, because if it had been proven that she was the real Anastasia, then the tsar’s untold fortune would have passed to her, which was completely not in the interests of Nicholas II’s immediate relatives, who would lose all rights to the inheritance.
It all started on February 27, 1920 in Berlin, when a young girl tried to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge into the Landwehrkanal canal. She was rescued by a police sergeant and taken to a psychiatric hospital. Since she did not have any documents with her, she was recorded as Fräulein Unbekannt, that is, an unknown girl. She began to call herself Anna Tchaikovskaya and stayed there for two years.
Clara Peuthert, one of the residents of the mental hospital, assured that Anne was one of the Tsar’s daughters - Tatiana or Anastasia. After leaving the hospital, Peutert spread the news, and it gained a lot of notoriety. Anna was visited by journalists, Russian emigrants and even people close to the royal family. The story began to gain momentum.
Some accepted her, while others called her an impostor. Upon leaving the hospital, she was received by many who believed in her, including representatives of the nobility who found themselves in exile. They sheltered her and helped her financially.
Anna had a difficult character, which was explained by her difficult fate. She was invited to Switzerland and various cities in Germany between 1922 and 1927. One of the queen's relatives even placed her in Seeon Castle. Maria, the king's mother, was convinced that Anna was Anastasia, while other relatives denied this, which added even more mystery to the whole story.
American journalist Gleb Botkin wrote a number of articles on this topic. Anastasia’s childhood friend, Princess Xenia Leeds, who was married to an American industrial magnate, lived in the United States. She became interested in Anne and invited her to visit her in the USA, where Anne met many Russian emigrants who believed in Botkin’s articles. There Anne took the surname Anderson.
Together with lawyer Edward Fallows, the journalist founded the Grand Russian Duchess Anastasia Corporation (Grandanor), which was involved in the sale of Romanov property when it was transferred to Anna/Anastasia by the British royal court, which was in the know.
Anne Anderson returned to Germany in 1931, but returned to the United States in 1968, where Botkin lived. She lived there until her death in 1984. She died of pneumonia. A few months earlier, she had married Jack Manahan, who was 20 years younger and called himself "the king's son-in-law."
In the 1970s, the litigation ended, and neither side was able to establish whether Anne Anderson was the real Anastasia or simply posing as the daughter of Nicholas II. The fascinating legend remains a mystery.
InoSMI materials contain assessments exclusively of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the InoSMI editorial staff.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna, daughter of the last Russian emperor, would have turned 105 years old on June 18, 2006. Or is it still turned? This question haunts historians, researchers, and... swindlers.
The life of the youngest daughter of Nicholas II ended at 17 years old. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, she and her relatives were shot in Yekaterinburg. From the memoirs of contemporaries it is known that Anastasia was well educated, as befits the daughter of an emperor, she could dance, knew foreign languages, participated in home performances... She had a funny nickname in her family: “Shwibzik” for her playfulness. In addition, from an early age she took care of her brother, Tsarevich Alexei, who was sick with hemophilia.
In Russian history, there have been cases of “miraculous salvation” of murdered heirs before: just remember the numerous False Dmitrys who appeared after the death of the young son of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. In the case of the royal family, there are serious reasons to believe that one of the heirs survived: members of the Yekaterinburg District Court Nametkin and Sergeev, who investigated the case of the death of the imperial family, came to the conclusion that the royal family was at some point replaced by a family of doubles . It is known that Nicholas II had seven such twin families. The version of the doubles was soon rejected; a little later, researchers returned to it again - after the memoirs of those who participated in the massacre in the Ipatiev House in July 1918 were published.
In the early 90s, the burial of the royal family near Yekaterinburg was discovered, but the remains of Anastasia and Tsarevich Alexei were not found. However, another skeleton, “number 6,” was later found and buried as belonging to the Grand Duchess. Only one small detail casts doubt on its authenticity - Anastasia had a height of 158 cm, and the buried skeleton was 171 cm... Moreover, two judicial determinations in Germany, based on DNA examinations of the Yekaterinburg remains, showed that they completely correspond to the Filatov family - doubles of the family of Nicholas II...
In addition, there is little factual material left about the Grand Duchess; perhaps this also provoked the “heiresses.”
Two years after the execution of the royal family, the first contender appeared. On one of the Berlin streets in 1920, a young woman Anna Anderson was found unconscious, who, upon regaining consciousness, called herself Anastasia Romanova. According to her version, the miraculous rescue looked like this: together with all the murdered family members, she was taken to the burial place, but on the way, the half-dead Anastasia was hidden by some soldier. She reached Romania with him, they got married there, but what happened next was a failure...
The strangest thing in this story is that Anastasia was recognized in it by some foreign relatives, as well as Tatyana Botkina-Melnik, the widow of Dr. Botkin, who died in Yekaterinburg. For 50 years, talk and court cases continued, but Anna Anderson was never recognized as the “real” Anastasia Romanova.
Another story leads to the Bulgarian village of Grabarevo. “A young woman with an aristocratic bearing” appeared there in the early 20s and introduced herself as Eleanor Albertovna Kruger. A Russian doctor was with her, and a year later a tall, sickly-looking young man appeared in their house, who was registered in the community under the name Georgy Zhudin.
Rumors that Eleanor and George were brother and sister and belonged to the Russian royal family circulated in the community. However, they did not make any statements or claims about anything. George died in 1930, and Eleanor died in 1954. However, Bulgarian researcher Blagoy Emmanuilov claims that he has found evidence that Eleanor is the missing daughter of Nicholas II, and George is Tsarevich Alexei, citing some evidence:
“A lot of information reliably known about Anastasia’s life coincides with Nora from Gabarevo’s stories about herself.” - researcher Blagoy Emmanuilov told Radio Bulgaria.
“Towards the end of her life, she herself recalled that the servants bathed her in a golden trough, combed her hair and dressed her. She talked about her own royal room, and about her children’s drawings drawn in it. There is another interesting piece of evidence. At the beginning of the 50- In the 1960s, in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Balchik, a Russian White Guard, describing in detail the life of the executed imperial family, mentioned Nora and Georges from Gabarevo. In front of witnesses, he said that Nicholas II ordered him to personally take Anastasia and Alexei out of the palace and hide them in the provinces. After long wanderings, they reached Odessa and boarded the ship, where, in the general confusion, Anastasia was overtaken by bullets from red cavalrymen. All three went ashore at the Turkish pier of Tegerdag. Further, the White Guard claimed that by the will of fate, the royal children ended up in a village near the city of Kazanlak.
In addition, comparing photographs of 17-year-old Anastasia and 35-year-old Eleanor Kruger from Gabarevo, experts have established significant similarities between them. The years of their birth also coincide. Contemporaries of George claim that he was sick with tuberculosis and talk about him as tall, weak and pale young man. Russian authors also describe the hemophiliac Prince Alexei in a similar way. According to doctors, the external manifestations of both diseases are the same."
The website Inosmi.ru cites a report from Radio Bulgaria, which notes that in 1995 the remains of Eleonora and George were exhumed from their graves in an old rural cemetery, in the presence of a forensic doctor and an anthropologist. In the coffin of George they found an amulet - an icon with the face of Christ - one of those with which only representatives of the highest strata of the Russian aristocracy were buried.
It would seem that the appearance of the miraculously saved Anastasia should have ended after so many years, but no - in 2002 another contender was presented. At that time she was almost 101 years old. Oddly enough, it was her age that made many researchers believe in this story: those who appeared earlier could count, for example, on power, fame, money. But is there any point in chasing wealth at 101?
Natalia Petrovna Bilikhodze, who claimed to be considered Grand Duchess Anastasia, of course, counted on the monetary inheritance of the royal family, but only in order to return it to Russia. According to representatives of the Interregional Public Charitable Christian Foundation of Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova, they had data from “22 examinations carried out by commission and judicial procedure in three states - Georgia, Russia and Latvia, the results of which were not refuted by any of the structures.” According to these data, Georgian citizen Natalya Petrovna Bilikhodze and Princess Anastasia have “a number of matching features that can only occur in one out of 700 billion cases,” stated members of the Foundation. A book by N.P. was published. Bilikhodze: “I am Anastasia Romanova,” containing memories of life and relationships in the royal family.
It would seem that the solution is close: they even said that Natalia Petrovna was going to come to Moscow and perform in State Duma, despite her age, but it later turned out that “Anastasia” died two years before she was declared heir.
In total, since the murder of the royal family in Yekaterinburg, about 30 pseudo-Anastasius have appeared in the world, writes NewsRu.Com. Some of them did not even speak Russian, explaining that the stress they experienced in the Ipatiev House made them forget their native speech. A special service was created at the Bank of Geneva to “identify” them, an exam which none of the former candidates could pass.
Grand Duchess Anastasia, the youngest daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna, can be considered the most famous of the royal daughters. After her death, about 30 women declared themselves to be the miraculously saved Grand Duchess.
Why "Anastasia"?
Why youngest daughter the royal family was named Anastasia? There are two versions on this matter. According to the first, the girl was named after close friend Russian Empress Anastasia (Stana) Nikolaevna, Montenegrin princess.
Montenegrin princesses, whom imperial court disliked for their passion for mysticism and called “Montenegrin spiders”, they had a great influence on Alexandra Feodorovna.
It was they who introduced the royal family to Grigory Rasputin.
The second version of the choice of name was outlined by Margaret Eager, who wrote the memoir “Six Years at the Russian Imperial Court.” She claimed that Anastasia was named in honor of the pardon granted by Nicholas II in honor of the birth of his daughter to students of St. Petersburg University who participated in anti-government unrest. The name "Anastasia" means "returned to life", and the image of this saint usually shows chains torn in half.
Unexpected daughter
When Anastasia was born, the royal couple already had three daughters. Everyone was waiting for the boy-heir. According to the Act of Succession to the Throne, a woman could take the throne only after the termination of all male lines of the ruling dynasty, so the heir to the throne (in the absence of a prince) was the younger brother of Nicholas II, Mikhail Alexandrovich, which did not suit many.
Dreaming of a son, Alexandra Feodorovna, with the assistance of the already mentioned “Montenegros,” meets a certain Philip, who introduces himself as a hypnotist and promises to provide the royal family with the birth of a boy.
As you know, a boy will be born into the imperial family three years later. Now, on June 5, 1901, a girl was born.
Her birth caused a mixed reaction in court circles. Some, for example, Princess Ksenia, sister of Nicholas II, wrote: “What a disappointment! 4th girl! They named her Anastasia. Mom telegraphed me about the same thing and writes: “Alix gave birth to a daughter again!”
The emperor himself wrote the following in his diary about the birth of his fourth daughter: “At about 3 o’clock Alix began severe pain. At 4 o'clock I got up and went to my room and got dressed. At exactly 6 am, daughter Anastasia was born. Everything happened quickly under excellent conditions and, thank God, without complications. Because it all started and ended while everyone was still asleep, we both had a sense of peace and privacy.”
"Schwibs"
Since childhood, Anastasia has had a difficult character. At home, for her cheerful, irrepressible childishness, she even received the nickname “Schwibs.” She had undoubted talent as a comic actress. General Mikhail Diterikhs wrote: “Her distinctive feature was to notice weaknesses people and skillfully imitate them. He was a natural, gifted comedian. She always used to make everyone laugh, maintaining an artificially serious appearance.”
Anastasia was very playful. Despite her physique (short, dense), for which her sisters called her “little egg,” she deftly climbed trees and often refused to climb down out of mischief, loved to play hide and seek, rounders and other games, played the balalaika and guitar, introduced It is fashionable among her sisters to weave flowers and ribbons into their hair.
Anastasia was not particularly diligent in her studies, she wrote with errors, and called arithmetic “disgusting.”
English teacher Sydney Gibbs recalled that the younger princess once tried to “bribe” him with a bouquet of flowers, then gave the bouquet to the Russian teacher Petrov.
The Empress's maid of honor Anna Vyrubova recalled in her memoirs how once, during a reception in Kronstadt, a very little three-year-old Anastasia crawled on all fours under the table and began biting those present on the legs, pretending to be a dog. For which she immediately received a reprimand from her father.
Of course she loved animals. She had a Spitz, Shvibzik. When he died in 1915, the Grand Duchess was inconsolable for several weeks. Later she got another dog - Jimmy. He accompanied her during her exile.
Army bunk
Despite her playful disposition, Anastasia still tried to comply with the customs of the royal family. As you know, the emperor and empress tried not to spoil their children, so in some matters the discipline in the family was almost Spartan. So, Anastasia slept on an army bed. What is significant is that the princess took this same bed with her to the Livadia Palace when she went on vacation. She slept on the same army bed during her exile.
The daily routine of the princesses was quite monotonous. In the morning it was supposed to take a cold bath, in the evening a warm one, to which a few drops of perfume were added.
The younger princess preferred Kitty's perfume with the scent of violets. This “bathroom tradition” has been observed in the royal dynasty since the time of Catherine the First. When the girls grew up, the responsibility of carrying buckets of water to the bath began to fall on them; before that, servants were responsible for this.
The first Russian "selfie"
Anastasia was not only fond of pranks, but was also partial to newfangled trends. So, she was seriously interested in photography. Many unofficial photographs of the royal family were taken by the hand of the younger Grand Duchess.
One of the first “selfies” in world history and probably the first Russian “selfie” was taken by her in 1914 with a Kodak Brownie camera. A note to her father dated October 28 that she included with the photo read: “I took this photo looking at myself in the mirror. It wasn’t easy because my hands were shaking.” To stabilize the image, Anastasia placed the camera on a chair.
Patroness Anastasia
During the First World War, Anastasia was only fourteen. Due to her young age, she could not, like her older sisters and mother, be a sister of mercy. Then she became the patroness of the hospital, donated her own money to buy medicine for the wounded, read aloud to them, gave concerts, wrote letters from dictation to their loved ones, played with them, sewed linen for them, prepared bandages and lint. Their photographs were then kept at her home; she remembered the wounded by their first and last names. She taught some illiterate soldiers to read and write.
False Anastasia
After the execution of the royal family, three dozen women appeared in Europe, declaring that they were miraculously saved by Anastasia. One of the most famous impostors was Anna Anderson, she claimed that the soldier Tchaikovsky managed to pull her out wounded from the basement of Ipatiev’s house after he saw that she was still alive.
At the same time, Anna Anderson, according to the testimony of Duke Dimitri of Leuchtenberg, with whom she visited in 1927, knew neither Russian, nor English, nor French. She spoke only German with a North German accent. I didn't know Orthodox worship. Also, Dimitri Leuchtenbergsky wrote: “Doctor Kostritsky, the dentist of the Imperial Family, testified in writing that the teeth of Mrs. Tchaikovsky, a cast of which we sent to him, made by our family dentist in 1927, have nothing in common with the teeth of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna.”
In 1995 and 2011, genetic analysis confirmed already existing assumptions that Anna Anderson was in fact Franziska Shantskovskaya, a Berlin factory worker who suffered mental shock during an explosion at the factory, from which she was unable to recover for the rest of her life.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova was born on June 18, 1901. The Emperor waited a long time for an heir, and when the long-awaited fourth child turned out to be a daughter, he was saddened. Soon the sadness passed, and the Emperor loved his fourth daughter no less than his other children.
They were expecting a boy, but a girl was born. With her agility, Anastasia could give any boy a head start. She wore simple clothes inherited from her older sisters. The fourth daughter's bedroom was not richly decorated.
The princess always took a cold shower every morning. It was not easy to keep track of her. As a child she was very nimble, she loved to climb where she could not get caught and hide.
When she was still a child, Grand Duchess Anastasia loved to play pranks and also make others laugh. In addition to cheerfulness, it reflects such character traits as wit, courage and observation.
In all the tricks, the princess was considered the ringleader. Consequently, she was not without leadership qualities. In pranks, Anastasia was later supported by her younger brother, the heir to the royal throne -.
Distinctive feature The young princess had the ability to notice the weaknesses of people and very talentedly parody them. The girl's playfulness did not develop into something indecent. On the contrary, brought up surrounded by the Christian spirit, Anastasia turned into a creature who delighted and consoled all those close to her.
When she worked in a hospital during the war, they began to say about her that even the wounded and sick danced in the presence of the princess. Before that, she was beautiful and cheerful, and when necessary, a sincere compassionate and comforter. In the hospital, the crown princess prepared bandages and lint, and did sewing for the wounded and their families.
She did this together with Maria. Then they both lamented that, due to their age, they could not, like their older sisters, fully be sisters of mercy. Visiting wounded soldiers, with her charm and wit, Anastasia Nikolaevna made them forget about pain for a while, she consoled all those suffering with her kindness and tenderness.
Among the wounded with whom she was able to see was an ensign. The same Gumilyov is famous. While in the infirmary, he wrote a poem about her, which you can find in his collections. The work was written on June 5, 1916 in the Infirmary Grand Palace, and is called “For my birthday.”
Years later, officers and soldiers who visited hospitals remembered the Grand Duchesses very fondly. The military, recalling those days from memory, seemed to be illuminated with an unearthly light. The wounded soldiers were interested in their fates. , assumed that all four sisters would marry four Balkan princes. The Russian soldier wanted to see the princesses happy, and prayed for them, and also gave them crowns from the queens of European states. However, everything turned out completely wrong...
Anastasia's fate, like the fate of everyone else, ended in the basement of the Ipatiev House. Here the Romanov dynasty ended, where Great Russian Russia ended along with them.
Since the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century, girls constantly appeared in Europe posing as Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanova. All of them were impostors who had a desire to profit from the misfortune of the Russian people. All the royal gold was bequeathed to Anastasia Nikolaevna. That's why there were adventurers who wanted to get their hands on him.
